Here in The Bitterroot we stand at 143% of a normal water year. That is one piece of the flooding risk matrix. There is a large potential flow for our river. The threat gets REAL when warm rains bring the snow down in too big of a hurry for the river banks to contain.

Ravalli County officials say that as the snow begins to melt minor flooding may occur across the valley — including areas adjacent to and downstream from irrigation ditches and canals, fishing access locations, culverts, bridges, small creeks and streams, and areas in which debris and/or ice has built up.
——————————————————

In the newsclip below Comissioner Chilcote expresses concern about where the water is going to go when the snow starts melting. He is referring primarily to the short-term localized problem of drifts piled up blocking snow melt from reaching ditches, streams then rivers.

Localized flooding, however, is small potatoes compared to the potential water stored in our surrounding mountains. Ah but what are the odds of warm rains bringing the water down in an unmanageable rush?

Unfortunately every bit as large as the extraordinary, destructive weather recently wrapping the globe. It looks a lot like a pattern to the watchers.

Those buying into the Global Warming, Global Climate-Change, crush the little people scam of the month get what they deserve… driving off the cliff with their eyes closed.

The masters of Newspeak really did themselves up handsomely with the “arthropodic climate change” phrase. Those low-life slime are actually doing the man-made climate engineering on a scale unimaginable to the masses … and unfathomable to those who value life on Earth.

Thus I place uncomfortable odds on the psychopaths to bring it on … any time. This Spring’s setup looks like one they may have dark plans for.
Bitterrooters should prepare to adapt.

If you are interested in more excitement, move downstream to the Clark Fork River. You can see from the graph on the right that the reservoirs capable of taking riverbank-breaching flows are already at 91% of capacity. That does not leave much margin for their 148% of normal precipitation to reach the Columbia River without delivering interesting times to the Missoula neighborhood.

The show could be much more dramatic over the hill – on the other side of The Continental Divide, the Missouri basin is even fuller. This spring could be one for the history books.